A  THEORY   OF  1  = 
SPIRITUAL  PROGRESS 


By    WILLIAM    ALLEN    WHITE 


A  Theory  of  Spiritual 
Progress 


A  Theory  of  Spiritual 
Progress 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Phi 

Beta  Kappa  Society  of  Columbia 

University  in  the  City  of 

New  York 


By  WILLIAM  ALLEN  WHITE 


The  Gazette  Press.  Emporia,  Kansas 


Copyright,  November,  1910 

by 
W.  A.  WHITE 


This  edition  is  limited  to  six  hundred 
copies,  of  which  this  copy  is 


No.. 


and  is  signed  by  the  author 


2225268 


€JHow  curious  it  is  that  those 
makers  of  myths  who  wrote  the 
story  of  the  genesis  of  life  upon 
this  earth  set  down  light  as  the 
first  created  thing.  Science  has 
learned  little  more  than  this. 
The  ceaseless  flow  and  ebb  of 
life  upon  the  planet,  is  from 
light  and  air  and  earth  and  water 
and  grass  and  animals  to  man, 
there  in  man  to  glow  for  a  time 
as  a  divine  light,  and  then  to 
pass  back,  broken  and  spent,  to 
light  and  earth  and  air  and 
water  and  grass,  again  to  resume 
the  upward  flow  from  light  to 
light.  From  inorganic  matter  to 

[i] 


organic,  from  organic  matter  to 
consciousness,  from  conscious- 
ness to  aspiration,  from  aspiration 
to  endeavor,  from  endeavor  to 
a  tale  that  is  told,  "dust  to  dust, 
ashes  to  ashes" — so  go  the  inter- 
changing cycles.  And  all  the 
wise  men  in  the  world  are 
watching  the  journey  of  that 
mysterious  thing  called  life,  as  it 
grows  from  chlorophyl  into 
history.  They  are  trying  to  find 
out  what  life  is. 

CfBut  life  has  eluded  micro- 
scopes, crucibles,  test  tubes  and 
scales.  Scientists  seek  to  corner 
life  in  chromosomes,  centrosomes 

[2] 


and  cytoplasms,  but  life  recedes 
further  into  the  ether.  Then 
they  tell  us  that  matter,  inorganic 
and  organic,  is  only  ether  in  its 
various  forms  of  motion,  and 
that  "ether  is  the  realest  thing  in 
the  world."  But  if  we  ask  what 
is  this  ether  that  moves  to  make 
life,  the  wise  men  may  only 
answer  with  the  children — 

Whither  she  goes 
And  whither   she  blows — 
Nobody  knows. 

iJTwo  things  only  will  scientists 
vouchsafe:  First  that  life  is,  and 
second  that  it  seems  to  have 
direction.  It  is  outward  bound, 
but  to  an  unknown  port.  In 


closing  a  review  of  the  growth 
of  the  theory  of  evolution — a 
review  which  the  world's  scien- 
tific press  has  praised  with 
enthusiasm — an  American  scien- 
tist, Vernon  L.  Kellogg,*  says: 

fJBut  an  automatic  modifying 
principle  which  results  in  de- 
terminate or  purposive  change — 
that  is,  in  the  change  needed  as 
an  indispensable  basis  for  the 
upbuilding  of  the  great  fabric  of 
species  diversity  and  descent;  is 
not  that  the  very  thing  provided 
for  by  the  simple  or  mechanical 
impossibility  of  perfect  identity 
between  process  and  environ- 
ment in  the  case  of  one  indi- 
vidual, and  process  and  environ- 
ment in  the  case  of  another?  But 


""Darwiniim  TocUy,"  publiihed  by  Henry  Holt  &  Company. 

[4] 


I  do  not  know.  Nor  in  the 
present  state  of  our  knowledge 
does  any  one  know,  nor  will  any 
one  know — until  we  find  out.  We 
are  ignorant  —  terribly,  im- 
mensely ignorant.  And  our 
work  is  to  learn. 

tj  The  Hebrew  poet  came  to  the 
same  conclusion  thousands  of 
years  ago  when  he  asked :  "  Who 
by  searching  shall  find  out  God?" 
f|  And  yet  the  further  we  go  into 
life,  whether  in  the  laboratory  or 
in  the  street,  the  surer  we  are 
of  the  working  of  what  the  scien- 
tist calls  the  "determinate  or 
purposive  change "  and  what  the 
psalmist  calls  the  "way  of  the 

[5] 


Lord. n  Between  the  light  where- 
with the  chlorophyl  is  made  and 
and  the  light  that  never  was  on 
land  or  sea,  the  light  of  human 
aspiration,  there  thrills  a  divine 
purpose,  moving  the  tide  of  life 
from  light  to  light.  "Deep  call- 
eth  unto  deep,"  and  the  world 
problem  is  to  understand  the 
call.  What  is  this  puzzling 
complexus  of  human  relations? 

A 

Is  there  a  golden  thread  of  tangi- 
ble workable  faith  running 
through  the  snarled  scale  of 
human  existence?  Doth  Job  fear 
God  for  nought?  Surely  if  a 
"determinate  or  purposive 

[61 


change"  is  needed  "as  an  in- 
dispensable basis  for  the  up" 
building  of  the  great  fabric  of 
species  diversity  and  descent,"  it 
is  needed  here  and  now  to 
explain  human  evolution;  to 
clarify  the  final  form  of  the  first 
created  light  that  comes  down  to 
us  from  that  mute  dark  age  when 
"the  spirit  of  God  moved  upon 
the  face  of  the  waters."  For 
here  and  now  we  find  the  divine 
light  in  man.  The  upward 
growth  of  mankind  is  hardly 
disputed.  Every  link  in  the 
chain  from  the  savage  to  the 
philanthropist  is  present.  There 

[7] 


are  no  breaks,  no  gaps.  Chang- 
ing habits  of  life  have  changed 
our  morals.  Customs  grow  stale 
and  new  ones  replace  them. 
And  with  our  changing  habits  of 
life  many  cruel  customs  have 
dropped  away;  kindly  habits 
have  replaced  them.  Our  insti- 
tutions are  continually  sloughing 
off  cruelties.  Human  sacrifice  has 
gone;  the  torture  chamber  has 
gone;  the  stake  has  gone;  the 
death  penalty  is  going;  child 
imprisonment  is  going.  Starving 
through  inequities  of  distribution 
of  the .  common  wealth  of  the 
nations  is  ready  to  start  on  its 


journey  to  the  junk  pile  with  the 
rack  and  the  stake  and  the  pil- 
lory. Inventions  make  life 
easier  for  man;  and  hardships  in 
the  social  system  degenerate, 
atrophy,  fall  lower  and  lower  in 
the  social  scale  and  finally  dis- 
appear. The  common  ways  of 
the  common  people  in  civiliza- 
tion are  thus  made  easier  than 
the  ways  of  life  in  savagery. 
Through  inventions  and  their 
use  we  seem  to  see  in  human- 
ity at  least  one  phase  of 
the  "way  of  the  Lord,"  the 
"determinate  or  purposive 
change"  that  is  building  up  the 

[9] 


"great  fabric  of  species  diversity 
and  descent"  in  humanity. 
€JBut  something  more  than  in- 
vention has  been  moving 
humanity  forward.  Customs 
have  indeed  changed.  But 
change  has  had  a  purpose 
that  we  call  growth.  It  is  fair 
to  ask  how  has  this  growth  been 
achieved?  The  "determinate  or 
purposive  change"  must  have 
some  modifying  principle.  If 
there  is  direction  there  must  be 
a  director,  who  in  turn  must 
have  a  prod.  Now,  what  is  the 
prod  that  ever  keeps  mankind  go- 
ing in  a  given  direction?  Let  us 

[10] 


suppose  that  sin  and  evil  or  what- 
ever we  may  call  life's  somber 
forces  that  make  for  pain  or  un- 
happiness  or  sorrow,  are  infrac- 
tions of  the  social  code.  What- 
ever else  the  social  code  may 
be — it  is  the  sum  of  the  customs 
of  the  people;  it  has  public  sen- 
timent behind  it;  it  is  more  pow- 
erful than  any  human  law.  Who- 
ever violates  public  sentiment, 
whether  he  refuse  to  join  in  the 
cannibal  feast  ordained  by  sav- 
agery, or  whether  he  takes  rail- 
road rebates  condemned  by 
civilization,  or  wears  an  orange 
ribbon  on  a  green  day,  he  feels 

Hi] 


the  disapproval  of  his  neighbors. 
That  disapproval  is  a  basis  for 
the  conviction  of  sin.  It  is  at 
least  one  of  the  reasons  why  his 
conscience  pricks  him.  But  cus- 
toms change;  often  within  the 
lifetime  of  one  generation  they 
change  so  fast  that  a  man  is 
ashamed  in  middle  life  of  the 
things  he  did,  that  were  counten- 
anced by  society  in  his  youth. 
€JAs  men  widen  their  sphere 
of  knowledge,  they  broaden 
their  sensibilities.  As  the  sensi- 
bilities of  the  millions  broaden, 
society  redistributes  its  rewards, 
changes  its  code;  evils  multiply; 

[12] 


sin  increases.  But  it  is  not  the 
number  of  evil  deeds  that 
grows,  it  is  the  public  sense  of 
evil  that  is  widening. 
€J  Let  us  suppose  that  the  moral 
sense  of  society  grows  as  the 
sensibilities  of  the  masses  in- 
crease. These  sensibilities  af- 
fect men's  social  habits  and  cus- 
toms. As  we  appreciate  suffer- 
ing, we  put  a  ban  on  those  cus- 
toms that  cause  suffering.  Men 
with  smaller  sensibilities  than 
the  average  in  any  social  group, 
men  who  cause  suffering,  grow 
unhappy.  They  feel  the  grind  of 
public  sentiment  upon  them. 

[13] 


And,  following  the  course  of 
least  resistance,  such  men 
gradually  conform  to  the  ways 
of  society,  and  thus  slowly  the 
prod  in  the  hands  of  the  direc- 
tor of  humanity,  drives  human- 
ity forward.  This  then,  is  our 
theory: 

tj  Consciousness  is  sensibility;  in 
the  human  creature,  either  in  the 
mass  or  in  the  individual,  as 
time  operates  upon  sensibility, 
it  is  increased.  As  human  sen- 
sibilities widen,  imagination 
broadens.  Suffering  cries  for 
help.  He  that  hath  ears,  hears; 
cruelty  becomes  intolerable,  as 

[14] 


men  become  conscious  that  it 
exists.  Through  the  sensibilities  of 
humanity,  kindness  grows.  Thus 
the  race  moves  from  the  mate- 
rial world  into  the  spiritual.  At 
least  we  may  take  this  as  a 
theory  of  spiritual  growth. 
t][  Whether  the  inheritance  of 
progress  comes  to  humanity 
through  variation  of  the  social 
body  or  through  modification  of 
the  individual  is  not  important. 
Indeed,  it  is  not  important  to 
question  whether  or  not  the  in- 
heritance is  passed  to  the  indi- 
vidual at  all.  For  it  is  certain 
that  the  inheritance  is  seen  in 

115] 


the  modification  of  the  vast  so- 
cial body  of  civilization.  Prog- 
ress to  some  upward  ideal  of 
living  among  men  is  the  surest 
fact  of  history.  It  is  more  defi- 
nite than  dates  or  battles  or 
epochs  or  eras  or  forms  of  gov- 
ernment. Everything  else  but 
the  growth  of  human  habits 
through  the  widening  of  human 
sensibilities  toward  a  more  per- 
fect art  of  living  is  of  secondary 
importance  in  history.  For  men 
were  strong  when  they  held 
slaves;  they  wrote  wise  saws 
when  they  made  human  sacri- 
fices. There  was  culture  even 


in  Corinth  and  Sodom,  and  men 
were  orderly  under  the  govern- 
ment of  Rome.  They  were  in- 
dustrious in  the  days  of  the  in- 
quisition, and  were  pious  when 
they  burned  witches.  Yet  until 
men  began  to  be  kind,  civiliza- 
tion was  shifting  and  uncertain. 
And  only  as  brotherhood  and 
good  will  are  in  the  foundation 
of  modern  civilization  will  it  en- 
dure. Just  now  the  civilized 
world  is  trying  to  establish  de- 
mocracy. It  seems  to  express 
the  yearnings  of  the  race  for  the 
elusive  ideal  of  the  art  of  life. 
Democracy's  exponents  say  that 

[17] 


it  is  altruism  trying  to  state  it- 
self in  the  social  equation.  If 
they  are  right,  democracy  will 
endure.  Otherwise  men  will 
make  short  shift  of  democracy 
as  they  have  made  short  shift  of 
theocracy,  autocracy  and  an- 
archy. 

€J  For  if  there  is  a  golden  thread 
of  faith  shot  through  the  maze 
of  life,  it  is  faith  that  the  "de- 
terminate or  purposive  change" 
moving  in  men — "the  way  of 
the  Lord," — is  moving  toward  a 
social  order  wherein  men  may 
express  their  good  will  toward 
one  another  at  less  material  sac- 

[18] 


rifice  than  they  expend  in  ex- 
pressing good  will  as  things  are 
now.  For  only  one  thing  has 
persisted  through  the  changing 
of  political  forms  during  the 
passing  centuries.  That  is  the 
tendency  of  men  to  be  kind  to 
one  another  in  their  primary  re- 
lations. The  "determinate  or 
purposive  change"  needed  as 
"an  indispensable  basis  for  up- 
building the  great  fabric"  of  hu- 
man society,  is  the  gradually 
widening  good  will  among  men 
as  their  sensibilities  broaden — 
from  the  good  will  of  the  family 
to  that  of  the  tribe,  from  that  to 

[19] 


the  clan,  from  that  to  the  state, 
from  that  to  the  nation. 
fl  Thus  it  may  be  reasonably  as- 
serted that  the  impelling  current 
in  the  tide  of  human  customs 
and  habits  now  moving  human 
affairs  is  kindness  of  men  to  men. 
Our  modern  civilization  is  not 
measured  by  its  commerce,  not 
by  its  politics,  not  by  its  religion, 
not  by  its  literature.  These  are 
by-products  of  our  habits  of 
good  will.  Modern  commerce 
is  vast,  because  on  the  whole  it 
is  honest.  Governments  are 
strong,  because  they  are  based 
so  largely  upon  common  con- 

[20] 


sent  and  so  little  upon  force. 
Religion  is  useful  only  as  it 
teaches  habits  of  kindness,  and 
modern  literature  is  permanent 
only  as  it  impresses  altruistic 
ideas  definitely  upon  the  masses. 
If  the  realest  thing  in  the  mate- 
rial world  is  ether,  perhaps  the 
realest  thing  in  the  spiritual 
world  is  the  habit  of  kindness. 
It  may  be  that  the  simile  will  go 
further.  They  say  that  all  the 
material  manifestations  of  the 
world,  the  earth,  the  waters  of 
the  earth,  the  sky  above,  the 
lightning,  the  whirlwind,  the 
trees,  the  grass,  these  bodies  of 

[21] 


ours  and  the  "many  inventions" 
of  men,  are  merely  forms  of  mo- 
tion in  the  ether.  May  it  not  be 
true  that  all  that  is  worthy  and 
permanent  in  our  human  rela- 
tions, whether  in  the  home  or 
in  the  state,  is  but  the  spirit  of 
kindness,  urging  us  forward  to 
some  perfection  in  the  art  of 
life,  to  an  undreamed  of  ideal  in 
our  human  relations?  The  physi- 
cal cycle  from  light  and  water 
and  earth  and  air  through  or- 
ganized vegetable  masses  re- 
duced for  combustion  in  ani- 
mals to  be  returned  to  light  and 
water  and  earth  and  air  again — 


that  is  a  narrow  cycle.  May 
there  not  be  a  broader  cycle? 
Where  light  and  water  and  earth 
and  air  in  their  ceaseless  round 
upon  this  globe  become  trans- 
muted into  human  aspirations, 
when  this  corruption  puts  on  in- 
corruption,hasnota  larger  cycle 
begun?  May  not  the  cycle  of  the 
ether  widen  as  it  joins  the  cycle 
of  the  spirit?  The  one  may  be  said 
to  resemble  the  revolutions  of  the 
earth  upon  its  axis,  moving 
forward  in  a  cycle  of  material  evo- 
lution .  Is  there  not  also  an  ellipse 
beyond  the  narrow  material  cycle 
whose  first  curves  men  are  just 

[23] 


beginning  to  discern — a  spiritual 
ellipse  that  will  have  its  turning 
in  some  unknown  eternity  that 
we  may  not  fathom  even  in  our 
dreams? 

€JSuch  questions  must  remain 
purely  speculative.  For  after  all, 
the  world  is  not  a  chocolate 
eclair;  there  is  meanness  in  it; 
there  is  injustice  in  it  and  inhu- 
manity in  it.  The  training  that 
comes  to  the  race  as  it  combats 
meanness,  goes  through  injustice 
and  encounters  inhumanity,  is 
necessary  training.  The  selfish 
forces  of  life  have  their  place  in 
life.  War  has  played  its  part  in 

[24] 


evolution;  it  has  taught  us  much; 
so  has  pestilence,  so  has  famine, 
so  has  lust,  so  has  hunger. 
"There  must  needs  be  offense: 
but  woe  to  him  through  whom 
offenses  come."  And  millions 
of  men  and  women  in  this  part 
of  the  world  that  we  call  civ- 
ilized, are  bound  so  closely  to 
the  rack  of  harsh  experience 
that  they  cannot  see  the  essential 
nobility  of  their  own  lives — lives 
that  in  dull  anguish  and  misery 
still  find  room  for  a  thousand 
daily  kindnesses;  lives  that  still 
are  filled,  even  the  most  sordid 
of  these  lives,  with  sacrifices 

[25] 


and  with  loyalty  to  unworthy 
causes.  And  this  sacrificial  loy- 
alty is  the  fruit  of  a  greater  faith 
than  their  lips  or  hearts  could 
confess.  God  knows  these  lives 
are  hard  and  bitter.  God  knows 
that  the  world  is  full  of  such 
lives.  Yet  God  knows  also  that 
from  the  grimy,  sodden-witted 
lives  of  the  millions  helping  their 
kind  in  instinctive  folk  charity 
born  from  the  common  sensi- 
bility of  civilized  men,  springs 
the  seed  of  human  progress. 
Therein  lies  much  of  our  ulti- 
mate hope  of  whatever  millen- 
nium may  come. 

[26] 


fl  There  is  a  practical  side  to 
whatever  spiritual  truth  we  may 
find.  For  as  modern  civilized 
society  is  organized,  at  least  two 
fundamental  spiritual  facts  are 
obvious:  First,  that  the  current 
of  modern  progress  in  the  va- 
rious organized  activities  of  men 
is  impelled  more  largely  than 
ever  before  by  good  will;  and, 
secondly,  that  so  far  as  the  indi- 
vidual man  is  kind  he  is  happy, 
even  if  he  is  not  materially  pros- 
perous. Consider  the  first  prop- 
osition, that  in  public  activities 
men  are  largely  impelled  by  mo- 
tives of  good  will.  Is  not  the 

[27] 


whole  tendency  of  modern  poli- 
tics toward  helping  the  man  up 
from  below?  What  are  public 
schools  but  aids  to  the  prostrate 
to  rise?  What  is  universal  suf- 
frage but  an  endeavor  to  arm  the 
weak  against  the  aggressions  of 
the  strong?  What  are  all  these 
attempts  to  purify  our  modern 
politics,  to  purge  the  parties  by 
direct  nominations,  to  establish 
the  referendum  in  cities,  to  abol- 
ish corporate  campaign  contri- 
butions, to  give  to  the  people 
the  right  of  recall  upon  public 
officers  and  the  right  to  initiate 
legislation?  To  be  sure  they  are 

128] 


the  weapons  of  modern  democ- 
racy. Certainly  they  are  found 
not  merely  in  America,  but  all 
over  civilization.  But  funda- 
mentally and  chiefly  they  are 
instruments  which  the  advocates 
of  democracy  believe  will  lift 
the  weak  man  into  a  better  herit- 
age than  he  enjoys.  What  is 
this  movement  for  old  age  pen- 
sions, for  workingmen's  com- 
pensation laws,  for  employers' 
liability  laws,  for  welfare  work 
in  the  great  industries,  profit 
sharing,  workingmen's  clubs,  la- 
bor unions, institutional  churches, 
parks  and  playgrounds,  free  li- 

[291 


braries  and  factory  sanitation, 
but  a  part  of  the  large  tendency 
of  the  world's  strong  men  to  make 
brothers  of  the  weak  so  they  may 
grow  strong  and  wise.  These  ame- 
liorating influences  have  come 
into  the  world  because  men's 
sensibilities  have  so  widened  that 
a  righteous  man  is  ashamed  to 
ignore  his  neighbor's  suffering 
or  his  neighbor's  wrongs. 
€JThe  public  activities  of  men 
along  altruistic  lines  cover  or- 
ders, lodges,  associations,  cove- 
nants, organizations — are  as  many 
as  the  sands  of  the  sea.  And  so 
generally  has  good  will  monop- 

[30] 


olized  the  parliamentary  form, 
that  men  meeting  for  purely  self- 
ish ends  today  have  to  make 
their  meetings  secret  and  hide 
their  purposes. 

fl  Consider  the  second  proposi- 
tion, that  man  as  an  individual 
is  happy  only  as  he  is  kind.  Of 
course  it  is  impossible  to  say 
just  what  man  is  happy  and 
what  man  is  unhappy.  But  ap- 
proval of  one's  kind  probably 
is  one  of  the  things  that  makes 
for  happiness.  Who  is  surer  of 
public  approval  than  the  gener- 
ous adversary,  the  chivalrous 
foe,  the  kindly  competitor?  Is 

131] 


the  rich  man  always  praised? 
Does  he  not  often  drain  a  bit- 
ter cup?  Is  the  powerful  man 
sure  of  public  acclaim  in  his 
mean  use  of  power?  Is  the 
proud  man  encouraged  in  his 
pride?  It  pays  to  be  decent,  is 
a  proverb  of  the  people.  That 
means  only  that  the  spiritual  is 
dominant  in  a  material  world. 
The  man  who  is  ever  looking 
for  the  main  chance  is  the  final 
loser  of  the  game.  Greed  pois- 
ons itself  and  dies.  The  pluto- 
crat is  pulling  against  the  cur- 
rent. Great  wealth  in  and  of  it- 
self today  often  is  regarded  by 

[32] 


society  as  a  handicap  to  a  man 
or  an  institution.  The  good  that 
money  will  do  is  limited.  The 
good  that  a  man  may  do  is  lim- 
ited only  by  his  talents.  Per- 
haps Mr.  Roosevelt  is  wrong  in 
some  of  his  tenets.  But  right  or 
wrong,  he  has  inspired  more 
men  to  righteousness  in  public 
life  than  a  millionaire  could  call 
forth  with  the  millions  of 
Wall  street.  And  all  the  king's 
horses  and  all  the  king's  men 
cannot  put  America  back  to  the 
lower  ideals  of  the  past  cen- 
tury. The  gain  is  permanent 
because  our  sensibilities  have  in- 

133] 


creased  in  matters  political. 
And  Mr.  Roosevelt,  who 
has  promoted  the  progress  of 
his  country,  manifestly  is  exult- 
ant and  happy,  while  those  who 
have  devoted  their  lives  to 
games  of  greed  before  all  the 
world  are  seeking  happiness  in 
mere  pleasure  and  "dig  for  it 
more  than  for  hid  treasures." 
Wherever  we  look  in  this  world 
with  clear  eyes,  whether  we  see 
great  movements  or  great  men, 
we  find  the  cycle  of  the  spirit- 
ual enfolding  the  cycle  of  the 
material. 
€J  We  may  as  well  make  up  our 

134] 


minds  that  to  all  good  intents 
and  for  all  high  purposes  this  is 
not  a  material  world.  Whoever 
would  achieve  any  worthy  thing 
must  found  it  upon  the  com- 
mon law  of  kindness  known  as 
righteousness.  The  world's 
greatest  goods  are  not  set  in  the 
ether.  Its  most  permanent  re- 
wards are  not  material.  We  are 
all  working  in  clay  and  it  is  our 
duty  to  work  well,  but  our  pay 
should  be  such  stuff  as  dreams 
are  made  of.  The  fool  is  he 
who  works  in  clay  and  takes 
his  pay  in  clay,  for  "the  fool 
said  in  his  heart,  there  is  no 

[35] 


God."  The  material  cycle  from 
light  and  earth  and  air  and  water 
through  grass  and  beasts  back 
to  the  elements,  is  a  vain  un- 
meaning repetition.  The  greater 
cycle  is  an  eternal  journey.  In 
life,  man  has  his  choice  between 
the  treadmill  of  the  eternal 
grind,  or  the  path  of  the  eternal 
journey.  It  is  his  only  choice 
in  all  the  scheme  of  things.  For 
on  his  choice  he  builds  his 
character;  from  his  character 
and  not  from  his  environment 
will  come  his  happiness.  In  the 
eternal  grind  man  may  pile  dol- 
lars on  dollars  by  the  million. 

F36] 


He  may  generate  great  material 
power;  he  may  have  glory,  or 
in  the  same  grind  he  may  work 
long,  lonesome  hours  for  poor 
pay.  It  is  all  the  same.  The 
pleasures  that  come  as  rewards 
for  material  success — the  pleas- 
ures that  come  for  cash — are 
apples  of  Sodom.  The  poor 
selfish  man  is  as  well  paid  with- 
out them  as  the  rich  selfish  man 
is  paid  with  them.  Pleasure  is 
not  happiness.  Nor  is  poverty 
misery.  Happiness  is  useful- 
ness; meanness  is  waste,  and  mis- 
ery is  more  the  result  of  charac- 
ter than  of  environment.  A  man 

[37] 


never  succeeds  in  a  large  sense 
in  working  for  himself.  Only 
until  a  man  has  got  out  of  him- 
self, until  his  effort  is  for  others, 
until,  in  short,  he  is  out  of  the 
eternal  grind  and  in  the  wider 
spiritual  cycle,  may  a  man 
really  achieve.  For  it  is  folly  to 
pull  against  the  current — spend- 
ing strength  to  no  end.  Either 
the  fool  is  right  or  he  is  wrong. 
Either  there  is  a  God  or  there  is 
not.  If  there  is  not,  whence 
this  "determinate  or  purposive 
change"  toward  higher  things 
in  nature  and  in  man;  if  there  is 
a  God,  we  cannot  fool  him.  So 

[38] 


why  treat  him  as  a  confederate 
in  our  crimes?  Why  should  we 
expect  material  rewards  for  spir- 
itual service?  Why  envy  mate- 
rial success?  Why  lose  faith  be- 
cause the  wicked  seem  to  pros- 
per? Why  should  not  those 
who  seek  material  rewards  by 
selfish  methods  get  them?  There 
is  nothing  to  hinder  them.  It  is 
none  of  God's  business.  They 
are  out  of  his  world.  WTiy  do 
the  wicked  prosper,  asked  Job 
in  rebellion.  They  do  not. 
CJThey  get  things  and  things 
oppress  them.  Things  curse 
them.  Things  corrupt  their 

[39] 


children.  Things  drive  away 
their  friends.  Things  keep  them 
awake  nights.  Things  make 
men  cowards  and  cheats,  and 
bend  them  to  unholy  tasks.  It 
is  the  crown  of  follies  to  believe 
that  those  insensible  persons 
whom  we  choose  to  call  "the 
wicked"  prosper.  For  the  world 
of  the  spirit  has  its  own  laws. 
And  these  laws  do  not  run 
counter  to  gravitation  and  cohe- 
sion and  the  centripetal  forces. 
€f  Men  of  flabby  faith  are  jeal- 
ous of  others  with  goods  and 
chattels.  These  jealous  men  de- 
sire material  rewards  for  spir- 

[40] 


itual  services,  and  curse  God, 
longing  for  fleshpots.  Then  is 
not  their  covetousness  their  pun- 
ishment? Indeed,  is  not  all  sin 
its  own  penalty?  Does  not  greed 
and  lust  and  meanness  shrivel 
the  soul  so  that  it  may  not  en- 
joy the  marvelous  spectacle  of 
life  passing  before  us?  Thus  the 
greedy  man  may  gain  the  world 
and  lose  his  own  soul.  He  must 
lose  his  own  soul  if  he  gains  the 
world,  for  he  moves  in  the  cycle 
of  the  ether,  and  cannot  travel 
in  the  larger  cycle.  But  never- 
theless he  may  gain  the  world. 
There  is  no  law,  physical  or  spir- 

Hl] 


itual,  against  that.  He  may  ex- 
cite his  senses.  He  may  have 
pleasure.  There  is  no  law 
against  that.  He  may  dodge 
the  penalties  of  the  physical 
world.  That  is  not  impossible. 
CJ  All  thieves  are  not  caught;  but 
all  are  punished.  The  senses 
grow  dull.  Even  pleasure  van- 
ishes. Pleasure  is  at  best  a 
counterfeit  of  happiness.  It  buys 
nothing  in  the  end,  and  those 
who  traffic  in  counterfeits  are 
outlawed  from  the  higher  law. 
That  is  their  penalty.  And  who- 
ever would  add  more  fire  to 
hell  for  them,  than  they  have, 


I  ••-•--' 


[42] 


needs  the  fire  for  himself. 
fJBut  in  the  outer  cycle  the 
world's  work  goes  on.  Mothers 
bear  and  rear  their  young;  men 
help  their  brothers.  In  the  great 
workshops  and  offices,  in  the 
streets,  on  the  farms,  in  grand 
houses  and  in  humble  dwell- 
ings men  are  working  for  the 
joy  of  achievement,  working  be- 
cause the  day's  work  must  be 
done,  working  in  pain  and  in 
anguish  and  still  in  the  joy  of 
service.  Theirs  is  not  the  ma- 
terial world;  theirs  is  not  the  ma- 
terial reward.  For  them,  what 
though  the  scales  do  not  bal- 

[43] 


ance,  and  their  social  service  find 
an  inadequate  material  return. 
What  though  they  are  under- 
paid in  money — the  certificate 
of  title  for  social  service.  God 
is  paying  them  in  the  joy  of 
service  and  society  may  keep 
the  change  and  choke  on  it.  Is 
the  mother's  rocker  on  a  meter, 
that  society  must  pay  her? 
Neither  is  the  brother's  hand  to 
be  weighed  in  the  market  bask- 
et. The  clock  watcher  is  paid 
in  terms  of  time;  the  worker  for 
good  will  is  paid  in  terms  of 
eternity.  And  yet,  through  some 
inexorable  law  whose  workings 

[44] 


we  may  not  understand,  there 
seems  to  be  a  reckoning  for 
society.  The  social  organiza- 
tion so  insensible  to  human 
rights  that  it  cheats  the  individ- 
ual pays  toll  on  its  journeys — or 
perishes. 

CJThe  trash-heaps  of  his- 
tory are  piled  high  with  nations 
that  were  cruel  and  unfair  to 
those  who  did  the  rough  work 
of  their  times  without  fair  re- 
turn. The  land  that  cheats  the 
workers,  cheats  itself.  Indeed 
and  in  truth  does  righteousness 
exalt  a  nation. 
fl  It  may  be  men  will  say 

[45] 


that  we  do  not  live  in  primitive 
times;  we  have  great  things  to 
do.  But  no  great  achievement 
ever  came  without  great  vision, 
and  great  vision  does  not  come 
for  money  or  power  or  fame. 
No  work  is  so  great  that  it  needs 
be  done  in  meanness.  Would 
you  dig  your  isthmian  ditch, 
build  your  college,  lay  your 
railroad,  proclaim  your  God, 
put  up  your  sky-scraper,  frame 
your  law,  promote  your  admin- 
istration? Then  keep  it  in  the 
outer  cycle — in  the  world  of  the 
spirit.  Have  faith  in  it;  conse- 
crate it  with  love  of  humanity 

[46] 


and  men  will  come  to  help  from 
the  ends  of  the  earth  with  ma- 
terial things  to  make  your 
dream  come  true.  Nothing  is 
so  cheap  as  stone  and  iron  and 
leg  service.  Reformers  often 
lack  faith.  They  repine  for 
money.  If  Christ  had  waited 
until  he  could  earn  money  by 
miracles  to  hire  missionaries, 
where  would  Christianity  be? 
The  plan  of  salvation  needed 
no  financial  basis  to  establish  it. 
It  needed  a  crucifixion.  Most 
reform  needs  something  like 
that  more  than  money.  The 
reformer  must  be  a  crusader  for 

f47] 


the  spiritual  world  is  no  place 
for  the  dabbler.  Louis  XVI 
without  heart  or  bowels  lived 
at  Versailles  in  the  material 
world;  and  when  his  head 
rolled  into  the  basket  it  was  an 
addled,  towsled  old  head  in  the 
basket — nothing  more.  But  John 
Brown's  body  paid  the  mort- 
gage on  two  million  souls.  The 
spiritual  world  offers  its  heroes 
little  loot  and  much  righting.  It 
promises  long  marches,  hard 
bivouacs,  keen  suffering  and,  in 
the  end,  lonely  and  perhaps 
shameful  death.  Faith  has  few 
crowns  for  her  champions.  For 

[48] 


one  John  Brown  ten  thousand 
died  at  Cold  Harbor.  Yet  who 
would  recall  them?  Who  would 
not  trade  a  storied  urn  and  ani- 
mated bust  for  a  place  in  the 
trenches  with  the  nameless  dead 
of  that  battlefield? 
fl  But  the  doubter  will  ask,  how 
does  kindness  grow?  How  is 
good  will  cultivated  among  men? 
Why  have  we  moved  up  from 
barbarism?  Through  what  or- 
gan has  the  "determinate  or  pur- 
posive change"  worked  the  way 
of  the  Most  High?  Humanity 
is  a  bundle  of  contradictions. 
Yet  spiritually  there  is  a  law  of 

[49] 


regression.  We  tend  to  spirit- 
ual averages.  No  one  is  all  good 
nor  all  bad.  There  is  no  race 
of  moral  giants,  any  more  than 
a  race  of  physical  giants.  Nor 
are  there  races  of  moral  dwarfs 
and  moral  starvelings.  The  di- 
vine spark  is  in  every  soul.  In 
a  crisis  the  meanest  man  may 
become  a  hero.  Indeed  there 
is  no  profession  of  heroes.  The 
charlatan,  the  oppressor  of  the 
poor,  the  courtesan,  or  the  thief, 
has  seen  the  spark  of  divin- 
ity flare  up  within  him  in 
some  great  crisis,  and  as  it 
burned  it  has  shown  a  hero.  It 

[50] 


is  doubtful  whether  any  human 
being  falls  so  low  that  he  will 
not  give  up  even  his  life  upon 
a  grand  impulse  to  save  a  fel- 
low sufferer  in  agony.  This 
holy  spirit  is  in  every  heart. 
The  inheritance  of  the  divine 
spark  is  an  universal  endowment. 
It  is  the  fundamental  claim  men 
have  upon  one  another  as 
brothers.  We  are  equals  in  the 
democracy  of  the  holy  spirit — 
in  the  potential  spark  of  hero- 
ship.  Great  souls  are  they 
whose  enlightened  sensibilities 
make  each  day  a  grand  crisis, 
every  neighbor  an  object  of  sac- 

[51] 


rifical  love.  But  the  fire  that 
burned  in  Christ's  heart,  and 
the  fire  that  burned  in  the  thief's 
heart  who  gave  his  life  for  a 
child  in  the  street,  are  one  fire. 
Christ  knew  this.  He  accepted 
the  scarlet  woman  as  sister,  and 
the  publican  as  brother.  Over 
and  over  the  spark  is  planted  in 
untold  billions  of  hearts  as  the 
ages  pass;  and  slowly  as  our 
sensibilities  widen,  our  customs 
change.  So  comes  progress, 
and  the  fire  glows  larger  in  our 
common  lives.  That  divine 
spark  is  the  realest  thing  we 
know  in  the  universe — more 

[52] 


real  even  than  the  ether.  For 
while  we  have  the  mighty  round 
of  things  upon  this  globe,  from 
light  and  air  and  water  and 
earth  up  through  vegetation  to 
animal  life;  there  comes  a  place 
where  the  narrow  material  cycle 
touches  a  segment  of  the  wider 
round— where  the  ether  thrills 
with  a  human  vision.  There  in 
that  holy  of  holies,  the  human 
consciousness,  creation's  plan 
begins  anew,  and  God  says,  let 
there  be  light,  and  lo,  there  is 
light. 


153] 


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